Semiconductor manufacturers must contend with continually decreasing device sizes, wire widths and wire thicknesses and power consumption as well as increasing device density, wire density and operating frequencies. These requirements have led the semiconductor industry to utilize copper wiring in place of older wire materials, for example, those based on aluminum and aluminum alloys. For example, aluminum has problems associated with heat dissipation and electro-migration. Copper, which has a lower resistivity and greater electro-migration lifetime eliminates many of the problems associated with aluminum and is more suitable for use in low-power, low-voltage and high speed applications. However, there are difficulties with fabricating copper interconnects because copper is more reactive than aluminum and can diffuse through many dielectric materials complicating the fabrication process of copper wiring. Therefore, there is a need for a method of fabricating copper interconnect wiring that reduces the risk of problems related to the reactivity of copper and the diffusion of copper while still providing a cost effective manufacturable process.